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Random question but why is it called memoization instead of just caching? Isn't it the same thing? For some reason I never ran across the word memoization when
by jtchang 6y ago
Random question but why is it called memoization instead of just caching? Isn't it the same thing? For some reason I never ran across the word memoization when I was doing CS a number of years ago.
- shajznnckfke 6y agoThe term is over 50 years old: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoization#Etymology https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoization#Etymology Probably been used in CS longer than “caching”.
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoIf you include hardware in CS, no, caching is older. If you don't, I'm not sure.
- phendrenad2 6y agoCS is full of needless jargon and buzzwords, which only serve to make the field seem more impressive to outsiders.
- username90 6y agoMemoization is only when you cache the results of a referentially transparent function in software, caching is more general. You have cpu caches, browser bashes, even entire servers can be caches of common web requests etc. So using the word "memoization" is more specific and leads to less confusion.
- chimtim 6y agocaching a computation result is called memoization.